As a former "world factory," China's traditional home appliance industry is accelerating its exploration and application of various artificial intelligence technologies to adapt to the diverse needs of the consumer side and seek a path for the industry-wide "smart upgrade."
Robot vacuums that can collect temperature, humidity, and air quality index data, formulate and update cleaning plans; smart refrigerators that regularly monitor the shelf life of food inside, alert to expiration information, and can also automatically generate recipes and help users create shopping plans; air conditioners and air purifiers that connect with smart wristbands and adjust their working modes based on users' health conditions; and smart gas stoves that can immediately send alarm alerts to users' mobile phones if they forget to turn off the gas when leaving home, or proactively shut off the stove according to commands... These products, which sound like they come from science fiction movies, are becoming a reality in the laboratories, production workshops, and online sales platforms of major Chinese home appliance companies.
Recently, Hefei Meiling released a "smart" refrigerator with intelligent cold distribution and intelligent recognition technology. It can not only automatically identify ingredients and alert to expiration information but also break the traditional fixed partitions of refrigeration and freezing, allowing for on-demand temperature adjustment and switching at any time based on user preferences. Prior to this, Meiling had released new products based on a smart freshness control technology system, supported by three major technologies: intelligence, frequency conversion, and freshness control, targeting the high-end market.
"There is a saying attributed to Bill Gates circulating online: In the future, a house without a smart home system will be as outdated as a house without internet access today. Maybe the technologies we find novel now will become extremely common in just a few years!" said Liu Jun, a Hefei resident who recently replaced his refrigerator with a smart one and added a robot vacuum to his home.
According to the "2017 China Artificial Intelligence Industry Research Report" released by CIC Industry Research Center, China's artificial intelligence market size reached 9.661 billion yuan in 2016, with a growth rate of 37.9%. The AI market continues to grow, expected to exceed 13 billion yuan in 2017 and surpass 20 billion yuan in 2018.
Smart home is one of the important application areas of artificial intelligence. A report released by Suning.com, a well-known home appliance sales platform in China, shows that during this year's National Day Golden Week, sales of home appliances priced above 7,000 yuan increased by over 170%, and most of these high-end products are equipped with AI technology.
Industry experts believe that young generations like Liu Jun and middle-class families have become the main force in the consumption of home appliances in China. They are willing to "pay" for smart home appliances with high technological content, and they do not lack purchasing power; what they need are higher-end functions and experiences.
"Implementing the new development philosophy and building a modernized economy" has become an important part of the report to the 19th CPC National Congress, and in this section, the first priority is "deepening supply-side structural reform," while also "promoting the deep integration of the internet, big data, artificial intelligence, and the real economy."
"With the rapid development of intelligence and the Internet of Things, smart homes are entering the fast lane of development. The global intelligentization of home appliances is just 'the first step of a long march.' The road ahead is long and the market is vast, requiring continuous investment from enterprises and constant technological innovation," said Jiang Feng, chairman of the China Household Electrical Appliances Association, at the 2017 China Household Electrical Appliances Technical Conference held recently.
Many market consulting agencies analyze that the home appliance industry, as "the manufacturing sector closest to consumers," is accelerating along this new path, and the enthusiasm of well-known enterprises to launch new products is also continuously increasing.
Haier recently launched a smart water heater that has evolved from mobile phone control to voice-set temperatures, recording and analyzing family members' bathing habits, and can also combine with local tiered electricity pricing policies to help users develop various energy-saving plans.
Midea has produced a smart rice cooker that can distinguish over 2,000 varieties of rice worldwide and select the best cooking procedure. Previously, Midea acquired German robotics giant KUKA to lay out its presence in the field of artificial intelligence.
Changhong's AI TV achieves natural voice interaction and deep learning, especially at the "cognitive" level, enabling efficient voice interaction coordination and semantic recognition and understanding centered on humans.
Industry insiders believe that artificial intelligence will not only help China's traditional home appliance industry, once renowned worldwide, find new growth points in production and sales but also give rise to new business models.
Earlier, at the "AI and Smart Home" roundtable forum hosted by the CCID Research Institute under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Li Hongyan, AI director and robotics team leader at Haier, predicted that in the future, AI will enable different home appliances to interconnect through multiple sensors, and combined with big data and cloud computing, establish user profiles for precise information mining and recommendation.
"This way, the sale of traditional home appliances can be upgraded into a long-term smart service model," he believes.
However, some industry insiders "calmly" point out that AI technology still needs to solve two problems: first, achieving standardization and platform sharing to change the current situation where smart products from different brands may require users to use different operating platforms and download different mobile apps, enabling product interconnection and improving integration; second, developing more intelligent applications based on user experience to make home appliances smarter and more considerate.
